To:INESSA ARMAND

Written:Written February 27, 1917Published:First published in 1964 inCollected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 49.

      Sent from Zurich to Clarens.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1977],

      Moscow,Volume 43,

      pages612b-613.Translated:Martin Parker and Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearFriend,

Ifyou send me your theses on the war question, I shall be glad to
discuss them, of course. As for your coming out against Golay, I don’t see
why the idea of its being “awkward” should occur to you. In my opinion,
on the contrary, it’s anything but awkward and extremely useful. We have
got to come out as strongly and bluntly as possible against the ridiculous
pacifism of the French (achieving socialism without revolution, and so on)
and the ridiculous belief in democracy. Golay, in my opinion, should be
given a special and public trouncing for recanting the valuableadmissions in his pamphletLe Socialisme qui meurt. I consider
this pamphlet excellent material for criticising the weakness and shallow
thinking of the French Lefts.

Ihave received from you a copy of the Russian text of the leaflet (I
am very pleased that you liked it). But there is no sign of the French
text!! Yet I asked for it to be done in duplicate!!! The thought that we
shall be late preys on my mind—there is only 2 months to go until 1. V
and the difficulties of communicating with the warring countries are
enormous.

Asregards Usiyevich, you write yourself that he is “spineless”. So I
did not scold him for nothing (and I asked for the letter to be shown to
you so that we could agree on methods of influencing him).

Soplease hurry upas much as you canwith the French and
English translations of the leaflet. If for any reason you couldn’t do it
in duplicate, then at least let me know exactly when you sent the leaflet
(French) to Abramovich.

Iam ever so pleased to hear that you are coming out more often before
the youth. A useful thing! The young are the only people worth working on!
Everything must be done to break down their pacifism and disbelief in the
mass movement (what about the Zurich strike of 1912? And in Geneva in 1900
or 1902?). It would be a good thing if you could collect material on the
big strikes in the history of the labour movement in French Switzerland.

Nadyahas recovered.

Allthe very best,Yours,Lenin

P.S.I have read Pannekoek’s discussion with Kautsky inNeue
Zeit(1912). Kautsky is despicably mean, and Pannekoek, but for someinaccuraciesand slight mistakes, isalmostright. Kautsky is the acme of opportunism.